ISLAMABAD: While Imran Khan is drawing huge crowds on his campaign trail, a senior leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) predicts that his party and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) could form the next coalition government at the centre.
“The PPP could also offer Imran Khan the office of prime minister in the coalition government,” Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, the president of PPP’s central Punjab chapter, said in a candid interview yesterday in Okara, where he was on a campaign trail.
“If Imran Khan plays his cards carefully, his party can bag more seats than PML-N in the centre,” he said. Manzoor Wattoo, whose party successfully completed its five-year constitutional term in office, predicted a hung Parliament as a result of the upcoming election. He believes no political party could win a simple majority, either in the centre or in the provinces.
“If the PPP outvotes its rivals, we’ll invite the PTI to form a coalition government,” he added.
“If the PPP can join hands with the ANP, JUI-F and MQM, it can also form a coalition with Imran Khan,” he said referring to the last coalition government that his party led for five years. He added that President Asif Ali Zardari believed in political reconciliation.
Asked about PPP’s strategy for Punjab, Wattoo said even if his party retained the seats it had won in the 2008 elections, it would be better placed to form a coalition government in the province. “We can join hands with PML-N if the party wins enough seats in Punjab,” he added.
Internews
